Part of the Global Plot to Expose Moonbats, conspiracy nuts, and anti-Semites, especially the Jewish anti-Semitic variety.
The leftwing Neo-Nazi web magazine Counterpunch has described Plaut thus: "One of the most pernicious writers is Steven Plaut, a man who could be thought of as Israel's Daniel Pipes."

Catholic League Denounces DePaul's Noman Finkelstein

Catholic League president Bill Donohue issued the following remarks todayabout an incident involving a DePaul University professor:

.Catholics have every right to expect that Catholic colleges anduniversities are free from bigotry of any kind. Unfortunately, a recentugly incident by DePaul professor Norman G. Finkelstein has betrayed thattrust. To be specific, an online column he wrote at indybay.org suggestingthat Alan Dershowitz be assassinated, coupled with an obscene depiction ofthe Harvard professor, is cause for alarm.

.Finkelstein has every right to quarrel with Dershowitz.s proud defense ofIsrael.s right to exist, but when he compares him to a Nazi (thisdespicable charge is made twice), then elementary standards of civilityhave been shattered. Similarly, calling Dershowitz a .moral pervert. who.missed the climactic scene of his little peep show. is the language usedby street propagandists, not academicians. Make no mistake about it,Finkelstein wrote this to illustrate the vicious cartoon he commissioned:Dershowitz is depicted masturbating in glee over dead Lebanese civilians.It doesn.t get much lower than this.

.There are plenty of arenas in and around Chicago where those who want torant can go to express themselves, but a university is not such a venue:the university exists so that the truth may be pursued. That is what aliberal arts education is expected to provide, and it is nothing but atravesty when the rights afforded faculty members are abused in the wayFinkelstein has done. This is doubly true when it happens on a Catholiccampus.

.The time has come for responsible Catholic leaders to hold up a stop signto this kind of ad hominem assault. Robust free speech should be welcomedon campus, but if it is to have pedagogical value, it must respect logicand standards of evidence. Character assassination of the kind Finkelsteinengages in does not meet that test. He has abused his rights as a facultymember and he has defamed Catholic education..

5. Leftist churches for North Korea:http://frontpagemag.com/Articles/ReadArticle.asp?ID=24884

6. Pseudo-scientists with a political agenda:October 6, 2006

Under the MicroscopeOctober 6, 2006; Page W13

This was a banner week for American science. The Nobel Prizes formedicine, physics and chemistry all went to Americans. The awardsunderline the universally acknowledged fact that the U.S. is the worldleader not only in its aggregation of talent but in its ability to nurturethat talent. First-class universities, along with copious private andfederal funding for research, are often cited as key enablers. But fewwould deny that money can't buy the most important element: a society thatencourages independent thinking, open debate and an unbounded spirit ofinquiry.

That is one reason why it is always dismaying when scientists -- of allpeople -- suggest that on some subjects there must be no questioningbecause debate is closed. And on one level, at least, this would seem tobe the implicit message of the newly formed 527 political organizationcalled Scientists and Engineers for America, or SEA.

In announcing its launch last week, the group said that it is concernedabout how the Bush administration has "compromised the integrity ofscience" with, among other things, its policies on global warming andstem-cell research and its (alleged) support for nonscientific"intelligent design" theories of evolution. SEA members have also cited adelay in making the "morning-after" pill, sold under the name Plan B,readily available over-the-counter as another example of a sustainedgovernment "assault" on science and scientists.

Such complaints have been heard before from scientists and others. What'snew is that SEA is explicitly dedicated to defeating political candidatesnationwide who support policies that SEA members oppose. Although theorganization describes itself as nonpartisan, its known targets areRepublicans. (A broader description of SEA goals can be found on its Website at www.sefora.org1.)

Whether SEA will become a science-themed version of moveon.org orsomething more catholic is not yet clear. One of the most visible SEAmembers so far is genetics Ph.D. Michael Stebbins, whose personal Web blog(at sexdrugsanddna.com2) includes a poem asking Jesus to make sure thatOhio's disgraced Republican Rep. Bob Ney gets sodomized in prison.

On the other hand, there are the softer tones of SEA member and 2003 Nobellaureate in chemistry Dr. Peter Agre. He told us that although he is alife-long Democrat, his driving interest is in promoting sound science. Headded that he also hopes to help repopularize science and its leadingfigures -- as in earlier days, when children thrilled to see people likeJonas Salk and Wernher von Braun explain medical and rocket science on TV.

Although SEA clearly is not nonpartisan in the way most people understandthat word, it is of course free to have a point of view: Politicalactivism is a hallmark of a democratic society. The more disturbingdisingenuousness here involves the suggestion in some SEA statements thatthere is such a thing as absolute, accurate science -- a body of facts --that is beyond further investigation. And that certain subjects orfindings are not open to interpretation or discussion by nonscientists,including policy makers. In other words, when Americans raise questionsabout the moral implications of, say, stem-cell research, they aretrumping science with "ideology." Presumably, those who disagree have noideology or political agenda, only factual knowledge on a case that isclosed.

In truth, the best science flows from eternal questioning. Interestingly,Dr. Agre, who supports broadened stem-cell research, also told us that itspromise as an avenue to new cures may be "overhyped."

His frankness on that sensitive topic might alarm some fellow SEA members,who will worry that such an admission could be used as ammunition by"ideologists" of the other side. Yet he is speaking like a true scientisthere: eager to press ahead in exploration and yet unafraid to admit thatnobody can be sure which is the best direction.